Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, if she will make an estimate of the potential impact of traffic congestion on the economy.

Answered by Lilian Greenwood - Government Whip, Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury

The Department for Transport publishes transport analysis guidance to help assess the economic cost of congestion associated with different policy interventions. It also regularly publishes statistics on speeds, delay and reliability on different types of roads. However, it does not routinely assess the economic cost of congestion on the road network as a whole.

Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, with reference to the Autumn Budget 2025, published on 26 November, HC 1492, on what evidential basis she estimated the saving arising from the abolition of Police and Crime Commissioners and re-organising local government structures.

Answered by James Murray - Chief Secretary to the Treasury

The Government is committed to cutting the cost of politics.

The figures were calculated based on estimated savings from the potential reduction in local councillors through local government reorganisation and from the abolition of Police and Crime Commissioners.

These estimates are built from a range of sources including Local Government Boundary Commission data; salaries; office costs; election costs; sampling of councillor expenditure data from current authorities.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what her Department's policy is on supporting schools with falling pupil numbers.

Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)

Local authorities hold the statutory place planning function, ensuring there are sufficient schools in their area to meet the needs of pupils. It is for local authorities, in collaboration with academy trusts and other local partners, to balance the supply and demand of school places.

The department recognises the pressures caused by demographic changes in some areas. The lagged funding system, where schools are funded on the basis of their pupil numbers in the previous October census, helps to give schools more certainty over funding levels, and is particularly important in giving schools with falling rolls time to re-organise their staffing and costs.

Where falling pupil numbers results in spare space becoming available, primary schools have been able to apply for capital funding to create or expand school-based nurseries. We have just announced at least £3 billion for high needs capital between 2026/27 and 2029/30, on top of the £740 million this year, to create special educational needs units and resourced provision, including where there is spare space, and to improve the accessibility and inclusivity of the school environment.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what discussions he has had with the MHRA on the potential impact of regulatory reform on the time taken to develop glioblastoma treatments.

Answered by Zubir Ahmed - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)

The Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) is an executive agency of the Department and regulates medicine, medical devices, and blood components for transfusion in the United Kingdom, with responsibility for ensuring medicines meet appropriate standards of safety, quality, and efficacy.

The impact of the new regulatory reform on the development of glioblastoma is that the new regulations will introduce notifiable trials, including initial and modification trials, which will be approved within 21 days without further assessment if they meet the inclusion criteria. Therefore, these submissions will be approved with a short turnaround time. This approach will free up assessors’ time to provide more support for trials that require closer scrutiny. The trials in glioblastoma are part of the oncology area, which represents almost 30% of all submissions received by the MHRA.

Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, pursuant to the Answer of 4 December 2025 to Question 97317 on Local Government: Reorganisation, whether he expects the abolition of Police and Crime Commissioners and the re-organisation of local government structures to have any impact on Department spending.

Answered by Alison McGovern - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)

The Government is committed to cutting the cost of politics by reducing unnecessary layers of governance and bureaucracy.

Both the abolition of Police and Crime Commissioners, alongside local government reorganisation is intended to deliver savings for the taxpayer over time, with efficiencies reinvested in frontline services.

Exact savings from local government reorganisation will vary depending on the area and the final decisions on which proposals, if any, are implemented.

Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:

To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what funding the Government has allocated to support new or expanded manufacturing facilities for advanced glioblastoma treatments.

Answered by Kanishka Narayan - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)

This Government has made funds available to support UK manufacture of medicines and medical technology products, including up to £520 million to the Life Sciences Innovative Manufacturing Fund and £50 million to the pilot Life Sciences Transformational R&D Investment fund. These funds are open to applicants looking to establish, expand or improve UK based manufacturing of treatments for glioblastoma and other cancers, as well as a wider range of capabilities that improve UK health resilience.

Found: Lewis Cocking: Lewis Cocking, MP for Broxbourne. Mr Lee Dillon: Lee Dillon, MP for Newbury.

Found: Lauren Edwards Lillian Jones Dr Allison Gardner Kenneth Stevenson Helen Maguire Lewis Cocking